\nBuffalo News<\/span><\/p>\n
Scientists The Buffalo News<\/b> <\/p>\n Maybe Officially declared extinct in 1975, the fish that once accounted for the lion’s Walleye have become one of the most popular sport fish in this end of the lake, Busch was among the fisheries biologists working on “dead” Lake Erie Blues were declared dead, disappearing from Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the First, though, they have to find some verified, true-blue blue pike. That’s Then there were the tales told by fishermen, and even the Canadian fishing camp Busch put out the word that the wildlife service was interested, and soon Sophisticated DNA testing might hold the answers, by providing genetic Analysis of old mounted trophy fish and of scrap book photographs also has Busch isn’t sure whether the strategy might produce, some day, a captured Adam \u00a0TOP<\/a><\/p>\n
\nseek true-blue blue<\/a> pike
\n<\/span><\/b>By
\nMike Vogel
\nBuffalo News Environmental Reporter<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOctober 28, 1996
\nCopies of this article can be purchased from the Buffalo News Library
\nGo Here; http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\/newslibrary\/searchfeepopup.htm<\/a><\/p>\n
\nextinction isn’t forever. Maybe something can be brought back from the dead.
\nLake Erie biologists may on the verge of doing just that, as an effort — part
\nscience and part detective story — unfolds in Amherst. And Western New Yorkers
\ncould get a real bonus in the potential return of a vanished species that once
\nwas everyone’s Friday night fish fry, a lip-smacking staple just a generation
\nago. The blue pike, U.S. Fish and Wildlife experts are beginning to believe,
\nmight not have gone the way of the dodo after all.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nshare of commercial catches in Lake Erie has become the focus of intense
\nanalysis and increased speculation that some stocks of the species may survive
\nin northern Canadian lakes. “That is not farfetched,” insisted
\nDieter Busch<\/a> , head of the service’s Amherst-based Lower Great lakes Fishery
\nResources Office. “I would say it’s a much better chance than buying a
\nlottery ticket,” he added. “Overall, given the behavior of society in
\nthe ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, when they moved fish around a lot, it’s quite
\nprobable.” If blue pike can be identified positively, cultivated and
\nrestocked in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, it could provide a huge boon for both
\nsport and commercial fishing. No fish has yet moved into the ecological niche
\nonce occupied by the blues, which are smaller — and old-timers say tastier —
\nthan the popular yellow pike, or walleye. “The blue pike is a cousin to the
\nwalleye, as is the sauger,” Busch said. “They’re all part of the perch
\nfamily.”<\/p>\n
\nbut only by default. The species prefer the warmer, shallower waters of the
\nwestern end of the lake and not the deep cold waters of the eastern basin. The
\nsmaller blues used to fill the nets of fishermen before a marked decline blamed
\non overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution.<\/p>\n
\nin the 1960s, when the Endangered Species Act was passed. The focus then was on
\nwalleye stocks, he recalls. Although scientists prepared a “blue pike
\nrecovery plan,” they couldn’t find any fish to apply it to. A few grayish
\nwalleye went into a holding tank in Dunkirk and then on to university analysis
\nin Ohio. but they weren’t positively identified as blue pike. “The best we
\ncould do was declare them ‘blue pike suspects,” Busch said.<\/p>\n
\nNiagara River as major biological changes swept the polluted Great Lakes. A ban
\non phosphorus-based detergents helped revive the lakes, and ocean salmon were
\nstocked to replace depleted native species. Local anglers have been hoping to
\ndevelop a walleye fishery here that rivals the abundance of the western basin.
\nThat’s not likely, Busch and other biologists believe. While the lake now has
\nsome walleye that “don’t act like walleye” and dive deep like the
\nblues once did in pursuit of smelt, the population now seems stable — a hint
\nthat it has reached the carrying capacity of this basin. For that reason, many
\nbiologists have opposed pleas for a walleye hatchery at Dunkirk, and Busch
\nthinks a blue pike hatchery there might make much more sense.<\/p>\n
\nwhere the detective work comes in. In the I960s biologist had assumed blues and
\nyellows were pretty much alike, and that maybe the blue was only a different
\ncolor phase of the yellow. But Busch found a 1940s report from the University of
\nRochester – still the best study of blues – that indicted the smaller pike was a
\ncold-water species like the lake trout, not a lover of the shallows like the
\nwalleyes.<\/p>\n
\nbrochures that promised “both yellows and blues!” Busch began to
\nwonder whether more than color variations were at work. Possibly, he concluded,
\nblue pike fans trucked fish to some northern Canadian lakes for their own sport
\nin the ’30s and 40s. and some may survive. “A lot of rumors have existed,
\nfor a long period of time,” Busch said. “We got maybe 6 to 10 calls a
\nyear, from people who have been to Canada, asking us if these are blue pike or
\nblue walleye.” Then a videotape surfaced, showing anglers with both blue
\nand yellow-tinged pike from the same lake — a clue that local conditions
\nweren’t merely producing blue walleyes, but that both species might still
\nco-exist.<\/p>\n
\n“we were actually being inundated with samples, from skin and scales to
\neven whole fish,” he. said. Unfortunately, most still are classed as
\nprobable blue-colored walleyes – “blue pike suspects,” in biologists’
\nterms.<\/p>\n
\n“fingerprints” for the species. But while getting DNA samples from
\nmodern fish is easy, few historical examples are available for comparison.
\n“We have pickled fish at various locations, but the formaldehyde destroys
\nstructure, so they can’t be used,” Busch said. “Fortunately, though,
\nagencies. have samples from the past of scales taken to determine aging — and
\nthere would have been DNA in the mucous on the scales.” At some university
\nlabs, he added, “they’re looking at dried mucous on the scales and the
\nenvelopes” to see if thy can find the blue pike genetic code.<\/p>\n
\nrevealed another difference between the fish, and one that might prove useful on
\nthe scene. The deeper-diving blue have eyes that are even larger than those of
\nthe walleyes, and the service has developed drawings that can serve as a field
\nguide. “What would be really helpful is if the fishing public took copies
\nof these drawings with them on their field trips to Canada;” he said.<\/p>\n
\nand Eve blue pike couple that could be used to restore a vanished fishery.
\n“If there are none left, OK,” he said. “If the answer is no, then
\nat least we’ve laid it to rest. “If it’s yes, there will be major
\nexcitement.”<\/p>\n
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